The Insanity of our lives
by TheVampireMaharet
Summary: Chapter 5 up! Jarod pays a visit to his family, and Lyle and Raines plot some more. Please R&R!
1. Answers

            **     Unfortunately, I don't own any of the Pretender characters.  They belong to NBC and the wonderful people that wrote this show!  Please R&R!  Enjoy!**

**The Insanity of Our Lives**

**                                Chapter 1. Answers**

"What?!" she said as she picked up the cell phone lying on the bed next to her table.

            " I was getting a little bored, so I decided to call," replied the deep voice of a man from the other end.

            "Jarod, you never call without a reason," she replied groggily.

            She glanced over at her clock:  three thirty in the morning.  Leave it to him to call at an ungodly hour of the night.

            "Who said I didn't have a reason?" he replied sarcastically.

            "Just cut to the chase," she said angrily.

            She was definitely starting to get annoyed with Jarod.  This had been the first night in a while that she hadn't stayed up all hours of the night thinking about the one thing her life seemed to be full of, secrets and lies.  

            " You obviously haven't checked yesterday's mail yet.  I sent you something that you might find interesting to say the least."

            " What is it?" she replied curiously.

            " Answers Miss Parker.  Answers."

            And with that last cryptic message, he disconnected the call.

            Jarod always had a way of disappearing in the middle of a phone call.  Especially when things start to get interesting.  It annoyed her to no ends. 

            She hopped out of bed, and started making her way towards the front door.  She hurried as fast as she could to her mailbox, a little curious about whatever it was Jarod sent her.  When she opened the mailbox, all she found was an envelope with her name on it written in Jarod's handwriting.  She tore it open as fast as she could.  There was a note and a DSA inside.  The note read:

Miss Parker,

      This is the key to your past.  

                                                -- Jarod

            There was no stamp, address, or anything.  Jarod was probably nearby. 

            Inside, she grabbed her DSA player, and put the DSA in as fast as she could, her fingers trembling in the process.  

"Mr. Parker, I believe that's my daughter you're holding in your arms," said the unmistakable voice of Raines.

"Don't get used to the idea, Able.  She's going to be raised as my daughter, "Mr. Parker said, " Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my little angel to her mother."

And with that, he walked out of the room.

"My angel," said Raines to himself, "My angel."

            There was a little bit more on the DSA, but she didn't care to see the rest.  So Raines truly was her father, and the man she had called father for her entire life was really her uncle.  At least she knew who she was.  

            She closed up the DSA player and went back to bed spending the rest of the night tossing and turning.  

                                Another night's sleep down the drain.

                               *******************************

            "Miss Parker!" shouted Broots excitedly as she walked through the old Sim Lab door.

            "What, Broots?" she said slightly annoyed.

            "I found Jarod!" he said

            "Don't leave me hanging here, Broots.  Where is he?" she asked, angrily.

            "He's working as a tenth grade Biology teacher at a school down in Clarksville, TN," he replied.

            " Good work Broots.  What are we waiting for?"

            "Nothing.  Sydney's at home sick.  Apparently he caught the flu or something."

            Soon they were on their way to Clarksville.  Broots sat quietly in the seat across from her working on his laptop.  She continued to ponder about what she had learned the previous night about her past.  She didn't want to believe any of it.  She half hoped it was all a lie, and that Genius Boy had fake the DSA, but something in her heart said that wasn't true.  She knew Jarod would never do a thing like that.  He had never held back anything from her past.  If he found something, he always gave it to her.  The games he played in the process of telling her some dark secret were annoying, but at least he left breadcrumbs for her to follow.  

            She glanced over at Broots.  He was still working on his laptop doing who knows what.  He looked up when she looked over at him.

            "A penny for your thoughts Miss Parker?" he asked in a caring tone.

            "Broots, trust me you don't want to know what I'm thinking," she said warningly.

            " I wonder what Debbie's doing right now," he said, taking the hint.

            " Who knows.  Listen.  How long did you say Jarod had been at his current job?"

            "About a week."

            "Great, just great.  Whatever he's doing he's probably done with it by now.  This is probably going to be another dead end."  

            " You never know Miss Parker," said Broots hopefully.  He could tell something was up with her.  He wasn't sure what, but he was definitely gonna get to the bottom of it.

                                    ***************************

            "Jarod, I don't know what we would have done without you," replied Mrs. Anderson, a widow whose husband had been the previous Tenth Grade Biology teacher at the school he was working at.  Mr. Anderson was found murdered outside of the school on a Monday morning.  He had been shot to death.  The F.B.I. investigated the crime and concluded that he was the victim of a drive-by shooting.  After reading the newspaper article, he realized something didn't feel right about the murder, so he decided to make it his next pretend.  He discovered that a fellow teacher had paid a local gang to murder to the man in cold blood because Anderson had stumbled on to an arms business he was running.  The man sold just about every type of weapon you could imagine.  Naturally, Jarod confronted the man and exacted his revenge upon him.  He was now sitting in a federal prison.

            "Hey, it was no problem.  Here before I leave, there's something I want you to have," said Jarod.

            He handed her a white envelope full of money.

            "Jarod I can't take this."

            "Please.  It was something that was owed to me," he replied.  Of course, he had kind of stolen the money from the Centre, but it was the least they could do considering what they put him and his family through. It was only suiting that Centre money be used to help a family in need.

            "Thank you Jarod.  If there's anything I can do for you please don't hesitate to ask."

            "No, that's alright…. now that I think about it, there is a little something you can do for me.  You see those people who just got out of those black sedans?  Give them this," he said, handing her a red notebook.

            " I will Jarod.  Once again, think you so much."

            Jarod didn't really stay to hear her say thank you.  His survival instincts were kicking in, and he knew he needed to get away from the school.  He ran as fast as he could without attracting too much attention from Miss Parker and the sweeper team.  His rental car was near the back of the school.  

            He was near the back exit, when he heard a very familiar voice shout his name.

            "Jarod!" shouted Parker, "Get him!"

            The entire sweeper team turned when they heard his name, and began to chase him.  It was now a mad dash to his car.  He ripped the glass door open, but before he could clear the door, he heard two shots being fired.  

             One bullet shattered the door, and the other found its mark in his leg.

**So?  What do you think?  Is it good?  Should I even bother to continue?  This is my first Pretender Fanfic so please go a little easy on me.**


	2. Plotting

            **     Unfortunately, I don't own any of the Pretender characters.  They belong to NBC and the wonderful people that wrote this show!  Please R&R!  Enjoy!**

**THE INSANITY OF OUR LIVES**

**CHAPTER 2**

He suddenly felt a sharp searing pain in his left leg, which caused him to fall to the ground.  He knew he wouldn't be able to get up again, so he examined his leg.  The bullet had hit him in the shin.  There appeared to be no exit wound, so the bullet was probably lodged somewhere inside of him.  It would require surgery for its removal.  

            "It looks like your nine lives are up Jarod," said Miss Parker with an obvious smirk on her face.

            "I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you."

            It was about three o'clock.  The students were already gone, but many of the teachers were still around.  The sound of gunshots had attracted quite a gathering the first of which was a man named, Allen Henderson.  Allan was about 6 feet tall, and he weighed about 165 pounds.  He was tall and slender.  He had brilliant blue eyes, and jet-black hair.  

            " Oh my goodness!  Jarod!  Who are you people?" asked Allen.

            " Nobody you wanna be concerned with," replied Parker menacingly.

            " I wouldn't be doing my job if I wasn't concerned," he remarked coolly.

            " Oh really," said Parker with her usual icy, sarcastic tone.

            " If you don't leave us alone, and let us do what we came here to do Mr…," said Sam, the sweeper, piping up from the background, " Mr. Henderson, then the only way you'll be leaving this school is in a black bag."

            " I think you're gravely mistaken," said Allen, as he pulled a gun from the holster underneath his black suit jacket, "I'm an undercover F.B.I. agent.  I've been working with Agent Hollis for some time now.  And trust me, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to protect the people in this school."

" Are you now?" smirked Parker, giving him a cursory glance.  Jarod wasn't sure if she was checking him out or seeing if he was capable of doing what he said he was.  

She scrutinized him one more time before saying, "Come on.  We're leaving."

" Miss Parker, what are you doing?  We have Jarod right where we want him," said Sam.

" This guy looks like the type that's bark and bite.  And I'm sure a murder case is the last thing we need.  Like it or not, we're leaving."

            With that, they all turned around and left, leaving Jarod and the rest of the school in shock.  

            "Jarod who were those people?" questioned Allen, breaking the silence.

            " Some old friends of mine.  I'll explain it to you later," grimaced Jarod.  His leg was really starting to hurt.  He also knew that he would have to tell Allen about his past.  He tried to avoid giving away too much information away to people federally connected, but he felt obligated now.  This man could have been shot, and like all of the many deaths he had witnessed over the years, it would have been his fault.

            " One of the teachers called an ambulance about five minutes ago.  It should be here sometime soon.  Are you alright?"

            " I'll be fine.  Thank you Allen.  I don't know what I would have done without you."

            " Hey, it was no problem, but you definitely owe me an explanation," he replied.  

            Yes, he would explain everything as best as he could.  He just hoped Allen didn't take it to the next level, and get himself killed.

            **************************************

            " I heard about your bumbled capture Miss Parker, and I'm not pleased," said the raspy voice of Raines.  

            " I made the only choice I had at the time," replied Parker.  She knew he wouldn't understand.  He was the man that had murdered her mother.  All he cared about was bringing Jarod back by any means necessary.  It didn't matter to him if an innocent life had to be taken in the process.  But it did matter to her.

            " It doesn't look that way to me.  It seems to me like there was a single armed man standing in your way of capturing Jarod.  You had three sweepers and yourself.  The man was out numbered four to one.  We had Jarod right where we wanted him, and yet you let this man stop you from taking full advantage of this opportunity. Needless to say, the Triumvirate isn't too happy about this."

            " A murder is the last thing the Centre needs.  The man was an F.B.I. Agent.  We'd have the feds all over us if we killed the man in cold blood."

            " The Centre is very well capable of dealing with issues such as that.  Priorities, Miss Parker, priorities," he said, in that voice of his that still sent shivers up her spine whenever she heard it.  

            " I'll try to keep that in mind.  You were leaving weren't you?" she replied, glaring at him.  

            He slithered out the door, dragging his oxygen tank along with him.

                                    *****************************

            " I think I know a way to catch Jarod," said Lyle stepping into Raines' office with a very smug look on his face.  

            " I'm listening."

            "Jarod's been searching for his family for five years now, so it's obvious all we have to do is give him his mother.  We give him and his family a clue so obvious they won't be able to miss, but when Jarod goes to find his mother, we'll be there," he stated.  He knew it would work.  Jarod wouldn't ignore any clue that he found about his mother's current whereabouts, no matter what.

            "Jarod will probably see through this."

            "He might be suspicious, but he'll come alright.  I know how this guy thinks.  He'll think it's too easy, but he won't be able to forget about it because one question will gnaw at him for hours:  What if my mom really is there? Catch my drift?"

            Raines smiled as realization of what Lyle was saying dawned upon him.  

            "This just might work.  The question is how should we send him a clue?"

            "That's the easiest part of all.  We know that Jarod is in constant communication with Major Charles.  We give the Major an anonymous tip, and the Major will pass it to Jarod.  It's as simple as that.  Jarod will believe it more coming from his own father."

            "That's genius.  Pure genius.  I can't believe somebody didn't think of this sooner."

            Lyle merely smirked.  He would make sure to be there the day they caught Jarod.  .  He relished the thought of capturing Jarod, and making him pay for getting his thumb cut off and for all the other things he did to him


	3. Plans Under Way

**I don't own any of the Pretender characters!  They belong to NBC and all of the geniuses who created them.  Hope you enjoy!  Please R&R!**

**THE INSANITY OF OUR LIVES**

**Chapter 3.  Plans Underway**

"An undercover F.B.I. Agent working as a Biology teacher was shot, but no other casualties have been reported," stated the news anchor on the TV.

            " Hey dad, wasn't that Jarod's next pretend?" asked Emily.

            " I believe it was," replied Major Charles from the corner.

            Ever since the Subway incident, Emily and he had been hiding out in Nashville.  They had bought a large two-story house under a different name, and had been living there ever since.  Ethan had joined them a little while later, and together they found Gemini. Jarod stopped by occasionally but he never stayed long.  He was always afraid of Centre discovery.  Through their computers, they kept up to date.  Jarod e-mailed him before every pretend, so that he would never lose him.  They were almost together.  All they needed now was Margaret.  

            " I sure hope it wasn't Jarod who got shot," said Gemini.

            They had tried to decide upon an actual name for him, but he insisted upon waiting for Margaret.

            " It was, but he's alright.  The voices say it was the Centre," said Ethan.

            That Inner Sense thing scared him.  I mean he actually talked to voices that told him things before anyone else knew them.  

            " Of course he's alright.  He's as stubborn as dad.  And to be quite frank with you, I'm still trying to figure out if that's a good thing or a bad thing," said Emily.  

            " It's a good thing.  Trust me," he said chuckling.

            "Speaking of trust, didn't we "trust" you to make dinner?"

            " Yeah, and I've been making dinner," replied the Major.  This wasn't going anywhere good.  He could tell.

            " Then what's that I smell burning?"

            "My hamburgers!" he replied running into the kitchen.  

            Everybody was rolling on the floor clutching their stomachs.

            "Trust Emily to provide comedic relief," he thought.  She's just like her mother.

            The thought of Margaret sent a tear to his eye.  He missed her so much.  Everyday without her was worse and worse.  He hoped Jarod found her soon.

            He wiped an unshed tear from his eye, and started peeling his burnt hamburgers off the skillet lying on the stove.  He had planned on grilling them, but an unexpected thunderstorm put an end to that idea.  He paused a moment lost in thought, when he heard the very familiar sound his computer made whenever he had mail.  He decided to just wait in the kitchen and try to fix his ruined hamburgers.  One of the others would probably check the mail.

            "Dad!  Come here!  You should come see this!" said Gemini.

            "I'll be there in just a second.  Hold on."

            "Hurry dad this is important!"

            "I'm coming," he said.  What could get Gemini so excited as to forget that the more pre-occupied he was, the longer it would take for dinner to get done?

            He walked into the living room, and glanced at his computer screen.  Written on it, was the exact location of Margaret.  It couldn't have been Jarod who wrote it.  Jarod would probably find her, and then just bring her back.  Someone must have spotted her, and dropped an anonymous tip.  According to the tip, she was staying at a little town outside of Raleigh, North Carolina.  He knew Jarod would want this as soon as possible, but as he was about to send him a message, he paused.  He felt that he should the one to bring her back.  After all the trouble and anguish Jarod had gone through trying to find them, he didn't want Jarod to have to disappointed again.  He decided he would check out this lead, considering the fact that Jarod had done all of the hard work up to that point.

            "Aren't you gonna send this information to Jarod?" asked Gemini.

            "No, I'm going to go check this out for a change.  Knowing your mother, it's probably a dead lead anyway."

            "Oh sure.  You just want to go so that when you find mom, you guys can have all sorts of PDA."  Emily, again.

            "What's PDA?" asked Gemini with an innocent child-like face.

            "Public Display of Affection."

            "Oh."

            "But anyways, I'm gonna go pack up a few things, and then I'll be on my way.  Emily, as the oldest present, you're in charge."

            He hoped he wasn't too late to find her.  Margaret had always meant the world to him.  

                                    ************************************

            " Hey Allen!  Once again, I can't think you enough for what you did for me," said Jarod.  The hospital had released him an hour ago.  He was very thankful to be out of there.  He hated being pinned down for too long.  It probably had something to do with what the Centre had done to him.  He was limping slightly, but that would probably go away soon.

            "I'm glad to see you're okay.  You owe me.  Remember?" said Allen.  He wanted to get to the bottom of this.  He realized whoever those people were that shot Jarod knew what they were doing and who they were dealing with.  They were after him for a reason, and he wanted to know why.

            " Of course I remember.  Just tell me what you want to know, and I might tell you.  It depends on what you ask."

            " That's fair enough.  After all, I don't want your whole life's story.  Really all I want to know is why those people were after you.  I won't tell nobody else.  Your secrets are safe with me."

            Jarod knew that they would be.  Allen and he had become close friends over the years.  They had first met two years ago when he had helped to prove his innocence for a crime he had never committed.  Since then, they had worked on ten different cases together.  He had never told him anything about his past.  

            " When I was a child, I was taken from my family by a secret organization known as the Centre."

            "Why?" interrupted Allen.

            " Because I'm a Pretender.  I can become anyone I want to be."

            "You can become anyone you want to be? What do you mean by that?"

            "I can be a doctor, a rocket scientist, a lawyer, an F.B.I. Agent, but the most ironic thing is I don't know who I am.  The Centre isolated me as a child and exploited my abilities for their research.  They used me to perform simulations.  They told me these simulations were being used to help people, but instead they sold them to the highest bidder, and twisted my work.  Many people have died because of something I thought up.  When I learned of this, I escaped.  I've been eluding Centre capture for five years now.  All the while, I've been searching for the family I never knew," he said with a mixture of shame and sadness in his eyes.

            "I'm so sorry Jarod.  I never knew," said Allen.

            " It's okay.  It's not your fault my entire life is nothing but a living nightmare."

            " I can't imagine what it would be like to have never known my family or to know that everyday someone's hunting me," Allen replied, " Have you found any of your family at all?"

            " Actually, I've pieced together most of it.  All I'm missing is my mother," he said wiping away an unshed tear.  He hated telling people about his past.  

            " Well at least you found some of them, right?" said Allen hopefully.

            " Yeah."

            " You know you should inform the Bureau about what these people did to you.  They should pay for it," he said with a glint in his eyes.  He enjoyed his job a little too much.

            "No!  I was afraid you might suggest that.  Never do anything like that.  These people will do anything to protect themselves.  They don't care who gets in their way," he said warningly.

            "Geez!  Don't bite my head off!  I was only offering a suggestion."


	4. Capture

I don't own any of the Pretender characters.  They belong to the geniuses that created the show.  Although I wish I did.  

THE INSANITY OF OUR LIVES

CHAPTER 4.  CAPTURE

"Hey Sydney!  You feeling better?" excliamed Broots, as Sydney came strolling through.

            "Much better.  Thank you.  I heard you had another lead on Jarod, and that in the process of trying to capture him, he was shot.  Is that true?" he asked.  He wanted Jarod to come back to the Centre, but he never wanted him to return dead.

            " It's true, Sydney, but before you start to get all emotional on us, I just want to clarify two things with you:  Number one, I didn't shoot Jarod one of the sweepers did.  Number two:  It was only in the leg," said Miss Parker.  She was happy to see that Sydney was all right, but she would never let him know.  She would never show how much she cared about anybody.  The last person she had cared for had wound up dead.  She didn't know if she could take something like that again.

            "Have you had any more leads on him?" asked Sydney.  There was something different in her eyes.  She had that look she always got whenever she figured out a secret about her past that she would have been happier not knowing about.  

            " Miss Parker, is something wrong?"

            "I'm fine Sydney.  There's nothing wrong with me."

            A sudden thought occurred to him.  

            "Jarod sent you something didn't he?  Something about the true identity of your real father," he said, his voice free of any emotion.

            " He did.  Raines is my father.  He sent me a DSA of a conversation Raines, and my fath… my uncle had.  And just in case you're wondering, I'm very fine with the notion of having a murderer for a father and brother.  As they say, like father like son."

            "If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

            " Thank you Sydney.  I've needed to get that off my back for sometime now."

            "You're welcome," he replied with a smile.

            Leave it to him to figure out exactly what was on her mind.  Sydney was like a father to her in many ways.  He had always been there for her whenever she needed him.  Whereas her real family was never there.  Never.  Her mother was there for her, but then she was murdered.  Murdered by her own father.  She wanted to hurt him so bad.  She wanted to cause him as much pain as he had caused her, but she knew that try as she might she couldn't kill him.  She would just have to think of some other way to get back at him.  Once and for all.

            ************************************

            "Everything's in place.  We sent the message a day ago.  Jarod will be well on his way," said Willy, the sweeper, to Raines.

            Of all the sweepers, Willy was definitely the most competent, and he would do whatever he asked of him.  No questions asked.  He didn't trust him.  How could you trust someone who could easily take your life away?

            "Excellent.  If all goes according to plan, we should have Jarod soon," said Lyle.

            Once they captured Jarod, he might go have some fun with an Asian woman.  That would be perfect.

            "The Triumvirate will be very pleased if this works out," said Raines.

            Yes, they would be pleased.  They would lower their guard, and then he would strike.  He would make his ultimate power play.  With one swift blow he would be in charge of the Centre.

            *******************

            Major Charles drove silently down the highway.  His plane into Raleigh had landed an hour ago.  According to the tip, Margaret was not too far away, in a town called Fuquay-Varina.  He was both excited and nervous about seeing her.  After all, he hadn't seen his wife in at least twenty years.  His stomach was turning.  But it wasn't all about seeing his wife for the first time in twenty years, he had a gut feeling that something was gonna go terribly wrong.

            He convinced himself it was just nerves, but still something gnawed at him.  Margaret had always been a hard person to follow.  Yet, the tip had stated that she had been working as a waitress at a local restaurant for only two days, and that she had been staying at a hotel the entire time.   He knew his wife, and something about this scenario felt amiss.  Something big was about to happen.

            ************************

            " There's a white Honda Accord pulling into the driveway," said Lyle.

            "Is it Jarod?" asked Raines.

            " I can't tell yet.  He hasn't gotten out of the car."

            He peered intently from his vantage point out of an apartment window, a glitter in his eyes.  It had worked.  They were finally about to catch Jarod.

            His delusions of grandeur were foiled, when instead of Jarod, Major Charles stepped out of the car.

            " Man!  It's not Jarod.  It's Major Charles!" exclaimed Lyle furiously.

            Raines wheezed a snickering laugh, which sounded much more like a man grimacing in pain.

            "You may know Jarod pretty well, but you apparently don't know the Major at all."

            " The way I figure it's still a win-win situation.  We've got the Major.  Let's use this for our advantage," replied Lyle.

            ******************

            He was really nervous now.  He was about a foot away from seeing his wife again for the first time in years.  He walked up the long set of steps, and rang the doorbell.  He could hear the shuffling of feet.  He was getting more and more nervous as the minutes went by.

            He soon heard the telltale sound of an opening door, but instead of Margaret, all he found were sweepers.  


	5. Foreshadowing

        You know the drill.  I don't own any of the Pretender characters.  They belong to the geniuses at NBC who created them.   

THE INSANITY OF OUR LIVES

**Chapter 5.  Foreshadowing**

"Where's the Major now?" inquired Raines.

            "He's lying on the couch.  We gave him a heavy sedative, so he should be out for some time," replied Willy.

            "Good.  We should take him back to the Centre, and set up a meeting with Jarod.  We'll get Jarod no matter what happens."

            "If I may say so, Mr. Raines, we've tried this scenario twice in the past.  Both times we failed.  We need to make sure Jarod can't capture any of our important personnel, and we have to find a location where Jarod can't sneak in or out," said Lyle.  Lyle always had an idea for everything.  Half of them never worked.  But he did have a point this time.

            "You're right.  We'll discuss where later.  In the mean time send a message to Jarod telling him that we have his father, and if he wants him alive he must come alone, and trade himself in.  Also be sure to note that if he sends someone else in his place, we'll be forced to use drastic measures."

            "I'll take care of that," said Willy.

            Now all they had to figure out was a location that no one, not even Jarod, could make their way through unnoticed.  This would be the hardest part of all.  Jarod was a genius, and although Lyle may under-estimate him, he certainly didn't.  

            ************************

            "Jarod!  It's so good to see you!" exclaimed Emily as he climbed out of his car.

            " It's good to see you too!  Since I was only an hour away I decided to drop by and pay you guys a visit.  So, what's been happening here lately?" he asked excitedly.  It felt good to see his family.  It had been a month since his last visit.  In actuality a month wasn't that long, but when you have so much catching up to do with your family, a month can seem like forever.  

            "We can talk about that kind of stuff in a few minutes.  You gotta come inside, and say hello to everybody first," she said.  She was both surprised and happy to see Jarod.  Dad would have been elated to see him, but he had gone in search of their mom.  She wondered how Jarod would take the news.  She noticed he hadn't changed much since their last visit, but one thing did catch her attention.  As he strolled up to the door, she realized he was limping.  So Ethan had been right.  

            "What'd you do to your leg?" she asked.  Of course she already knew the answer, but she wanted to see what he would say.

            "I'm surprised you don't already know," he said opening the door for her.

            "What do you mean?" She had to give her brother some credit.  He definitely was smarter than he looked.

            "The way I figured, you're only an hour away from Clarksville, which was where I had my last pretend t, so you probably caught the story on the news.  You've also got Ethan with his Inner Sense."  

            "Rats!  You're too good Jarod.  Yeah we do already know, but I had to ask.  A nice, caring sister would want to know why her brother was limping."

            " Who said anything about you being nice and caring?"

            " Oh shut up Jarod!" she yelled, pushing him playfully.

            "Hey everybody guess who's decided to drop in, and pay us a visit?" she yelled.

            "Who?" asked Gemini as he came bounding down the stairs, "Jarod!  It's good to see ya!"

            "Likewise."

            " Jarod's here?  No way!" said Ethan, already knowing that what he said was the truth.  He had known Jarod was on his way for about an hour, but he didn't want to spoil the surprise for everybody else.

            "Yes way," replied Jarod, "So where's dad at?"

            "We received an anonymous tip the other day about the current whereabouts of mom.  He decided to go check it out," said Gemini.

            "Really?  How long has he been gone?" Jarod asked excitedly.

            "Just about a day.  His plane left yesterday at about 2:00 p.m.  If mom's there he's found her," said Emily, before Gemini could reply.  

            " That's great.  I hope it's not another dead end."

            "You never know.  It may or may not be," replied Emily, with a smile on her face.

            "Ethan, did the voices tell you anything before he left?" inquired Jarod.

            "I didn't really ask.  Should I have?"

            "Yes, you should have.  This could have been a trap made by the Centre," he said, "Ask them now."  He was starting to feel a little uneasy.  The Centre had proven in the past that they were very well capable of doing these kinds of things.

            "Oh no!  It was a Centre trap.  This is entirely my fault!  I should have asked the voices right then and there.  Instead, I didn't think.  Now not only could dad be in serious trouble, but you could too Jarod!"

            He knew what he meant by that.  The Centre was more than likely planning on using his father to get him.  If they were, they were forgetting one thing.  He was a genius.  No matter what, he'd find a way out of the situation.  

            "It's not your fault Ethan.  If it's anybody's fault it's mine," said Jarod angrily.

            No matter what, he'd find a way out of whatever situation they placed him in.

**So?  Has my fanfic been good up to this point? Yes? No?  Please R&R and tell me what you think.  I'd really appreciate it.  I hope you've enjoyed this so far.  And don't worry, there are plenty more surprises in store.  I'm sorry about the wait, but I've been a busy little beaver lately, with homework and everything else in the world.  I'll try to have the next chapter posted much sooner! ****J**


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